BIRMINGHAM, AL – On April 3, 2023, the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (“ACLL”), a conservative nonprofit firm in Birmingham, Alabama, filed a comment opposing the Biden administration’s proposed repeal of a Trump-era rule that protects companies with moral objections to abortion-inducing drugs. 

When Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, it granted the Department of Health and Human Services the authority to craft rules that governed whether employers must cover drugs that could induce abortions. When President Trump came into office in 2017, his Department of Health and Human Services created two exemptions from the abortifacient mandate: one religious, and one moral. The former provided that religious organizations could opt out, but the second provided that companies could opt-out based on a moral objection to abortion, even if the companies were not religious. Earlier this year, the Biden administration proposed a regulation that would rescind the moral exemption.

Matt Clark, ACLL’s President, explained, “There are many companies in the United States that are pro-life but might not fit neatly into the category of a religious organization. ACLL is one of them. We filed our comment today to tell the Biden administration that there are organizations out there that will actually be hurt by the repeal of the moral exemption.” 

Clark also commented on the legal significance of filing a comment. “Under the Federal Administrative Procedures Act (‘APA’) when an agency proposes a new rule or regulation, it must provide notice to the Country and give the People a chance to comment,” Clark said. The APA requires the agency to consider every comment that gets filed. If it does not, then a court can strike the regulation down later.” 

Alliance Defending Freedom (“ADF”), a non-profit legal organization committed to protecting conscience rights, free speech, and the sanctity of life, assisted ACLL on this issue. “We are incredibly grateful to ADF for its assistance in this matter,” Clark said. “We hope that the administration listens to our concerns now rather than forcing us to litigate later,” Clark concluded.

For more information about ACLL, visit its website: www.alabamalawandliberty.org.

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